The week before the CEV Round 5 was to see the Albacete circuit in use for a round of the open Catalan Championship and this was used to provide Scott with a “warm up” ride to get him back in full race mode following the six week break after and his second place at the previous CEV round at Valencia.    In usual Redding style the fast laps came almost immediately Scott was back on track.   The BQR Blusens Aprilia technician was also obviously on the ball as the bike, like the rider, was flying.   Free practice and both qualifying sessions were dominated by the 14 year old to the point that the other riders must have realised that second place was the best that any of them could hope for in the race.   Qualifying session two saw Scott put in the quickest 125 lap ever recorded at the circuit at 1m 33.644secs.   It should be remembered that the previous quickest was set by the current GP250 rider Alvaro Bautista.

With just a few laps under his belt in warm up to ensure tyre selection all was ready for the race with, once again, Scott being quickest.

The race proved to be almost a demonstration with a start to finish ride in first place and a 30 second advantage over second at the end of the 17 laps.   It was quite obvious that the CEV race following weekend, despite much stronger opposition, could well see Scott at least running at the front.

ROUND 5 at the Albacete Circuit October 6th / 7th

Just 5 days later the Blusens Aprilia was in full action again.    Many of the top European riders, some back from the Grand Prix in Japan, were there to compete.   The free practice sessions on Friday went well and were used to get the bike set up once again although, fortunately, conditions were very similar to the week before so not too much had to be changed.   The Saturday qualifying was split into 2 groups to accommodate the large entry and saw Scott and his CEV Championship leader team mate Sefan Bradl in separate sessions.   In his first qualifying session Scott produced an absolutely stunning lap, over half a second faster than the record breaking lap the week before, at 1m 33.124secs.   From that moment on everyone in the paddock knew that it was going to be whole new ball game to win the race.   The second session did not produce a quicker lap, although Scott still thought that a lap in the 32s was possible but “traffic” was proving to be too much of a problem.   The combined qualifying used to produce the grid positions showed Scott on pole, with Stefan Bradl directly behind him on row two and Efren Vazquez, usually a 250 rider and also on a Blusens Aprilia, Alberto Moncayo, and Pere Tutusaus alongside him on the front row.   As the lights changed the whole grid got off the line well but by corner one the pole sitter had a 10 metre lead, followed by Vazquez and Moncayo.   Throughout the whole race these three were not to be challenged.    Gradually the leading two pulled away from Moncayo to battle between themselves although at no time during the race was Vazquez able to pass Scott.   They entered the first corner of the last lap with just a few metres between them but as they exited the last corner of the lap on the run to the finish line this had been extended to a 0.7 second gap.   A jubilant Scott had won a very deserved victory and he celebrated on the podium with a Union Flag wrapped round him.  Championship leader Bradl came home in fourth position giving him 13 additional points while Scott gained 25 putting him up to third in the championship, 25 points down on the leader and 13 points off second placed Pere Tutusaus.    To win the championship or come second with these deficits would be a tall order but you never know!  

Round 6 is at Valencia on 18th of November and the final round 7 at Jerez one week later on the 25th November.